“Eight in the morning or two in the afternoon,” Dad said as he slipped his reading glasses back on.
“I can be here at eight,” I confirmed.
“Excuse me, Mr. West?”
At the same time, my dad and I said, “Yes?”
The electrician stood a few feet away from us, wanting to show one of us something in the electrical closet. I deferred to my dad so I could at least have a few moments to read the email and text. Dad stood and went with the electrician down the hallway. I grabbed my phone and opened the text first. All it said was that he had emailed me an update and encouraged me to call him. I quickly opened my email and found the update from the attorney. I opened it, and there were bare bones pieces of info.
Elise changed her plea. Call me.
She changed her fucking plea? I felt myself break out in a sweat as I dialed my attorney and stepped outside.
“Hi. It’s Andrew. I just saw the email. So, she changed her plea?”
“Hey, Andrew. Yes. Remember I told you there were basically two routes they could go?”
“Yeah. Both were not guilty pleas. One bypassed the trial to determine if she is guilty or innocent, and the other option would give her the initial trial.”
“Correct. She’s changed from bypassing the trial to electing to go through with it.”
Okay.
Fuck.
What did this mean exactly for me?
“Okay. So what does this mean now?”
“She changed the plea from not guilty by reason of insanity to the double plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. So they’re going to chance it in a trial to see if a jury might find her not guilty.”
My temper was quickly elevating.
“And if the jury finds her not guilty, then she walks free?”
“Correct.”
Fucking son of a bitch.
I was annoyed at the response. Not at him, but just over this entire fucking mess.
“If the jury finds her not guilty, then the court will move to the sanity hearing. Remember, that’s the trial she was going to start with had she kept her original plea.”
“I recall.” I paused while I quickly gathered my thoughts and paced around my SUV in the parking lot. “So, any idea why she changed her plea? I thought you said they most likely entered the original plea because they knew there was too much evidence against her. What happened?”
“I don’t know exactly. Perhaps something new came up—”
I was really losing my patience and cut him off.
“New? New as in what? What would something new be?”
“New evidence could have produced itself, or possibly she’s suddenly telling something different to the attorney team.”
“Evidence? What new evidence could have come up to show she’s not dangerous? You have the police report from the night she stabbed me.”
“I do, yes. There’s substantial evidence against her. I’m only telling you what could have been a reason for her to change her plea.”
“But there has to be something, right? In order for the attorneys to advise that they thought it was a good idea to change the plea and take a try with the first trial, something substantial would have come up, right?”
